The Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 family of Standards (generally “802.11”) has gone through several iterations over the last decade. In some of the 802.11 standards, such as 802.11ah and beyond, the identity of the Basic Service Set (BSS) (e.g., as managed by an access point (AP) of the BSS) is indicated in a Physical Layer Convergence Procedure (PLCP) Protocol Data Unit (PPDU) by a set of bits that described the “color” of the BSS. The color of a BSS corresponds to an identifier (ID) of the BSS that is shorter than a BSS identifier (BSSID) defined by 802.11. The BSS color may be contained in the Physical Layer (PRY) Signal (SIG) field in a PRY header of a PPDU, whereas the BSSID is typically included in a media access control (MAC) portion of PPDUs. A device (e.g., an AP or client) in a BSS can determine whether a PPDU is from the BSS to which the device belongs (the “same-BSS”) or some other BSS (e.g., an overlapping BSS (OBSS)) by decoding the SIG field and interpreting BSS color bits included therein.
One of the newer implementations of 802.11 being discussed is 802.11ax (sometimes referred to as 802.11 HE or 802.11 HEW). 802.11ax contemplates dynamically adjusting the energy level at which a channel is deemed to be clear depending on whether the energy corresponds to same-BSS signals or to signals from another BSS. Such a scheme helps to promote spatial reuse between neighboring networks.